Fortis leads after day one of Commodores Cup

(CNS): Seven boats participated in the first J22 racing of the New Year, vying for the Commodores Cup and a place in the KPMG International regatta to be held in Cayman at the end of February. The Commodores Cup is run over two days with the second day of racing to be held a week later. The Cayman Islands Sailing Club said the day commenced with winds from the north east of 15 knots gusting higher but as the racing progressed the winds calmed to about 12 knots with a massive shift to the south east requiring the crews to concentrate on the wind and to adapt to new conditions.

Five races were held on the first day of racing, each being approximately half an hour in length and following the classic windward-leeward course. The starts of the races were fiercely contested with several boats in different races being too aggressive and being on the wrong side of the start line at the start, requiring them to return and start again. However, in the last race, Compass Marine had not realised they were over the start line early and led round the course only to find there was no finishing signal for them.

The youth team on Fortis was helmed by 15 year old Marina Maffesanti with crew members Stuart Jennings, Mike Delaney and Hugo McErlean. They showed maturity and calmness beyond their years as they won two of the five races with second places in the remaining three races. Fortis goes into the second day ofracing as event leader and will be difficult to beat. In second place is Compass Marine helmed by Mike Farrington who raced strongly but had one poor start. Jane Moon in third place showed great skills after poor starts arising from aggressive tactics, each time being able to gain numerous places during the course of the short races, and she will need to be watched by the boats in front of her.

The skippers will be watching the weather reports over the next few days to see what conditions will be like this coming Sunday and hoping that they will be favoured by fair winds.

Photo: Compass Marine helmed by Mike Farrington chasing Ciao helmed by Jane Moon on the downwind leg.